Friday, October 30, 2015

How can you turn a true story into a lie? It’s simple. The New
York Times, CNN and Fox News do it
often. Here’s how it works:

IGNORE CONTEXT

Never mention that the “stone throwers” are on their own
land trying to defend their own homes against the tanks and bulldozers of an
occupying force, and that it is the longest occupation in modern history. In fact, the word “occupation” is seldom seen
in the US media and when it
is, it is used as a part of “the occupied West Bank,”
as though no one is responsible. It’s
just the way things are. But, if there is no occupation in the story, there is
no story. Yet, “Only 4 percent of U.S. Networks
mention “occupation” as part of the story.[1] They focus more on Palestinian rage without
addressing reasons for the rage. And they
never present Israel
as the aggressor against mostly unarmed youth but only as defending itself
against the “aggressor.” Even murder is
presented as “self-defense.”

REPORT EVERY REACTION AS THOUGH IT WERE AN ACTION

Again, present the aggressor as the victim. Rarely show
Palestinian rage as reaction to years of brutal occupation of West Bank and
blockade of Gaza.
Write about rockets. Make no mention of Israeli accountability for closures, curfews,
Jewish only roads, the uprooting of olive trees and the denial of basic human
rights including separate laws for settlers and Palestinians. In fact it is
better to not mention settlers at all.
It might raise the question, “On whose land have these occupiers
settled? Never raise such questions as the right to leave and reenter ones own
country and the humiliation of having Israel’s sewage and waste dumped in
your neighborhood. It’s easy to distort
the facts. First rule is just choose what to leave out and second, set up the frame.

On October 10, 2015, Jewish Voice for Peace circulated a
petition entitled: Tell the New York
Times: We need Accurate Reporting on Israel and Palestine, saying, The
Times’ headlines consistently frame Israel as the victim, completely
misrepresenting an uprising which is a response to decades of displacement,
occupation and repression:

--Over 50% of headlines depicted
Palestinians as the instigators of violence, while no headlines depicted
Israelis as aggressors.

--No headlines referenced racist mobs
that have roamed the streets of Jerusalem
shouting “Death to Arabs.”

--Palestinians were referred to as
terrorists 41 times, while the term was used four times (including quotes from
Palestinians) to refer to violent Israeli actions intended to terrorize
Palestinians.

--The terms “violent” or “violence”
were used 36 times to refer to Palestinians, and 2 times to refer to Israelis.

--The terms “attack(s)” or
“attackers” were used 110 times to describe Palestinian actions and people, and
17 times to describe Israelis.

RARELY SHOW THE FACE OF THE VICTIM

Count the tears of the aggressor. Paint the poor combat
armed Israeli soldier as the “real” victim. Give him a name, talk to his
parents and friends. Interview his father sobbing, “He was such a good boy.” Show
their pain.

On the other hand, if the victim is a Palestinian, never
show him as a real person with feelings, a family and dreams for a future. Show
no empathy. He is a non-person. Someone
said, “The rule is: If it’s a Palestinian perpetrator, exaggerate his crime. If
the perpetrator is an Israeli, the crime didn’t happen”

A new wave of political unrest is
here. Within the last five weeks, over forty young people from Palestine were killed and over 1100 injured.
These are not mere numbers, but young people with faces, names, and dreams.
Yet, as if their lives do not matter, the Israelis are easing their already
loose laws on using arms with a clear message of shoot to kill. For the Israeli
government, these young Palestinians are rebels that do not deserve to live.
They must be taught a lesson. To add insult to injury, you hear the western
politicians talking about Israel’s
right to defend itself, and standing shamelessly with Israel.

He then adds: “Their lives matter to God.”

CAST DOUBT ON THE ACCURACY OF THE STORY

When an Israeli missile struck meters away from the Hassan
family home south of GazaCity, crushing the
sleeping family inside, Haaretz qualified the reports:

The New York Times
added that the bombing was “retaliatory,” implying that the victims were at
least partially responsible for their deaths and joined in raising doubt about
the story’s accuracy by saying, “Israeli Retaliatory Strike in Gaza Kills Woman
and Child, Palestinians say.[2]

LEAVE OUT A SIGNIFICANT PART OF THE STORY

Ignore the recent bombings and needless deaths of Palestinians,
Israel’s cynical restriction
on the food allowed into Gaza,
control of imports and exports to destroy any hope of economic stability. And heaven forbid, never mention road blocks,
check points, the wall or theft of Palestinian land for settlements. Such one sided reporting by most US media is
not an anomaly:

Last year when Israel bombed and
strafed Gaza for 51 days, resulting in more than 2,200 deaths, of which 75%
were civilians, CNN brought on one Israeli spokesperson after the other. From
Benjamin Netanyahu to Mark Regev; from Lt Col. Peter Lerner to Alan Dershowitz;
Americans were subjected to uninterrupted coverage of Israel’s version of
events…while CNN often operates essentially as Israeli state media, outlets
like the Wall Street Journal openly
demonize the Palestinians as “blood lust.”[3]

Huffington Post reports that a House Committee meeting on
the current wave of violence in Jerusalem
concluded that the current instability is caused by Palestinian leaders
encouraging their people to kill Israelis. Eliot Engel, ranking member of the
committee lamented, “It is heartbreaking to wake up seemingly every morning to
a new report of a stabbing or a shooting of innocent civilian in Israel.”

However Mr. Engel failed to express concern for the 21 Palestinians
killed by Israeli security forces just this month (October) despite having no
connection to terrorist attacks. He did
not mention the Israeli teen who stabbed four Arabs saying, “All Arabs are
terrorist.” Nor did he mention that between January and July of this year,
settler violence caused 42 casualties.[4]

In the first month of Israel’s “shoot to kill” policy, 16 Palestinians
have been killed in West Bank and Gaza
and more than 1,000 bullet injuries have been reported.[5]

Lop-sided reporting comes easy for the U.S. media. They have had a lot of practice.

Thomas Are

October 30, 2015

[1] Media
Educational Foundation Documentary, Peace,
Propaganda and the Promised Land , U.S. Media and the
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. 2004

[2] Mondoweiss, Haaretz
and New York Times Whitewash deadly airstrike on Sleeping Gaza Family. October 12, 2015.

[3]
Mondoweiss, You Can’t Say U.S. Media is Reporting Violence in Israel-Palestine in
an Evenhanded Manner., October 22,
2015.

Thomas L. Are

I preached for forty three years in the Presbyterian Church before retiring. If anyone would ever refer to me as a Liberation Theologian, I would be pleased. I started blogging several years ago to express my political and religious concern for justice, especially justice for the Palestinians.